Madison Vision Series: Carol Geary Schneider

Wed, 16 Oct 2013 5:00 PM
- 6:00 PM

5-6 p.m.Concert Hall, Forbes Center for the Performing Arts

The Office of the President, in conjunction with the Madison Institutes of JMU’s department of Outreach and Engagement, welcomes Carol Geary Schneider, the president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the leading national organization devoted to liberal art education, for the Madison Vision Series: Contemporary Issues in an Engaged Society.

This event is free and open to the public.

About Carol Schneider

Dr. Schneider has served as president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) since 1998. With nearly 1,300 member institutions, half public and half private, with members drawn from the entire higher education community, large, small, two-year, four-year, selective and open admissions, AAC&U is the leading national organization devoted to advancing and strengthening undergraduate liberal education.

Under Dr. Schneider’s leadership, AAC&U launched Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP), a public advocacy and campus action initiative designed to engage students and the public with what really matters in a college education for the twenty-first century. The LEAP campaign builds on AAC&U’s major effort, Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College, a multi-year initiative designed to articulate the aims of a twenty-first century liberal education and to identify comprehensive, innovative models that improve learning for all undergraduate students. Additionally, under her leadership, AAC&U has become widely recognized as both a voice and force for strengthening the quality of student learning in college for all students and especially those historically underserved in U.S. higher education. AAC&U is working with hundreds of colleges and universities and numerous state systems to expand the benefits of liberal education across the entire curriculum, through new integration between the core outlines of liberal education and student learning in their major fields.

While serving as a vice president at AAC&U in the 1990’s, Dr. Schneider headed a major initiative at AAC&U on higher education and U.S. pluralism, American Commitments: Diversity, Democracy and Liberal Learning.

Dr. Schneider is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a bachelor's degree in history (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa). She studied at the University of London's Institute for Historical Research and earned the Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. During her career, Dr. Schneider has taught at the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Chicago State University and Boston University. Additionally, she has received eleven honorary degrees, was the 2011 recipient of the American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Contribution to Higher Education Award and the 2013 recipient of the New American Colleges & Universities (NAC&U) Ernest L. Boyer Award, and was honored in 2013 as one of Diverse Magazine’s “25 Leading Women in Higher Education.”